My 29th birthday was on Monday (February 4th). Yay! If you are interested, I’d love to share how I celebrated!

I had a plan to go to Verameat in the East Village and pick out a piece of jewelry for a present to myself with my friend Anna, but then we ended up going early because they had a huge sale on January 31st! I felt so lucky that Anna noticed the sale and told me about it. I was able to pick out a few pieces that I wouldn’t have splurged on otherwise. Like this spine duster and feather ring. I also bought a “little teeny” (as I call it) ring that goes inbetween my knuckles. Those rings have always reminded me of my mama, who wears more rings than anyone I know. My siblings and I joke that when she’s late for something, it’s because she’s still putting on rings.

On the day of, I celebrated pretty casually, but still had a beautiful dinner with some of my best girlfriends at a great restaurant downtown. We went to Freeman’s on the Lower East Side, where I had a white bean soup with a side of roasted brussles sprouts. My friends were so sweet to treat me to dinner and fancy drinks, which made me feel even more special considering it was nice enough of them to come out on such a cold night (which might be the worst part of a winter birthday!).

Jen, Me, Kristen, Karrie and Anna.

Even though it was a cozy and casual event, which is really just the way I like it, I still wanted to feel a little special. Lately, my “special” hair secret weapon is a row or two of clip in extensions! My friend Lacy has her own hair extensions company, and recently came out with a new line of ombre clip-ins. I trimmed them to my own length, and had my colorist ,Carla, gloss them to match my hair exactly. They blend perfectly, and just thicken up my hair a little more on the ends, which actually makes it look much longer! It’s perfect for someone like me, who likes almost no daily fuss or maintenance when it comes to my hair, but really likes to go all out once in a while. Plus, I have a drawer of hair in my bedroom which literally makes me laugh out loud every time I open it.

If you have a special occasion (or not!) coming up, and want fancy hair, please check out Laced Hair Extensions!

And I’ll be doing a tutorial on how to put in your clip-ins soon!

I recently talked about the reverse ombre and why it’s a bad idea. But there is another way to do it that looks good and isn’t so much maintenance.

Instead of painting the highlights on to gradually go from light roots to dark ends, you can do your highlights on top like normal, and do a single process underneath. By going a few shades darker underneath, you are actually creating a very natural look. Naturally the sun wouldn’t lighten that hair, because it’s not ever reaching it. If you have layers, even long layers, the darker underneath part will peek through the lighter parts, making a similar “reverse ombre” effect. There is actually very minimal damage with color like this, because you don’t have to do highlights underneath, and that saves your ends from a lot of grief! I had my hair like this for several years. I would do a 7N or 8N underneath, and do highlights on top every few months to keep it bright.

Here are a few pictures!

You guys, I don’t know why I just don’t enjoy J-Simps’ company. Her hair is a good example of what I’m talking about though.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s is my favorite!

Nicole always has great hair. Not because she has naturally great hair, but because she has a great stylist.

Way back in beauty school, we called this look The Shadowbox. We did a more severe look like Christina Aguilera though. Back in 2002, I loved the platinum blonde with red or black underneath. You couldn’t pay me to do it now. Ha.

Would you try this look?

Courtney sent over this pic after following our ombre tutorial. She looks great and I love how the highlights give her some extra warmth.

Great job Courtney, thanks for the photo!

Photo credit to aubs photography

It’s been a while since we’ve posted a tutorial on here! This is one we shot a few weeks ago with my friends Abbie (model) and Samuel (producer). Thanks for all your help, you two!

As I said in the video, this video isn’t so you’ll do your own color, PLEASE do not do your own color…this video is to help you know how to explain to your colorist what you want! I’m sure many of them already know how to do it, but if they don’t, here it is! (it’s also for some of you colorists who asked me how it’s done).

There are a few different ways to get this look, but this is the way I do it. I know other colorists who free hand the bleach onto wet ends. The water sends the bleach up the hair shaft. That’s a really nice effect too.

And now it’s time for an Ombre Cheer:

Let’s Go Ombre! Ombre Let’s Go!

Photography: Jake

Photo

I love that this is called Ombre Hair (first it was called Bayalage). I have been trying to get this look for over a century and I am finally accepting that I really need to have highlights in the very front section so that I don’t look washed out. I keep the ombre in the back though, just to hold tight to my dreams of having hair like these ladies above. I think these are two of my favorite ombre pictures ever. This technique of coloring has to be my favorite of all time. Isn’t it gorgeous? I wish it worked better on lighter blonds like myself!

Celebrities who do this look well: Sarah Jessica Parker, Rachel Bilson, Giselle  and Nicole Richie.